Sling Media and Verizon have announced a partnership that will give owners of certain LTE-capable smartphones the ability to sign up for a hardware and software bundle directly through the V CAST App Store — and in a first for Sling, the service will actually cost a monthly fee. Unfortunately, the monthly charge was not revealed, nor were there any details given on hardware rental fees (should they exist), so it’s difficult to tell how good of a deal this is. It seems like the longer you intend to keep the service for, the better off you are buying your Slingbox and Slingplayer Mobile app a la carte.

Even Sling seems to be having trouble finding real value in this offer, with senior vice president John Gilmore suggesting that “Sling’s subscription offering is a new, easy way for consumers to start enjoying their home TV wirelessly, with one monthly bill from Verizon and without a long term contract for the Sling app.” Well, this may indeed be a (slightly) easier way to get up and slinging, but it’s odd that he mentions long term contracts for the software, as if such a thing existed elsewhere. Anyway, we’ll wait to pass judgment here until more of the details are laid out, but we do certainly hope that the future of handset placeshifting doesn’t become a pay-as-you-go affair.